h
by cornwallace
Summary: Some people say that Hell is merely seperation from God.


The loud tolling of the bell in the distance echoes throughout the hallow walls of the gigantic church. The large double doors swing open, light pouring into the dimly candle-lit place.

A dark figure, silhouetted by the light enters slowly. Draped in robes, he makes his way over to the first available pew to the left.  
He sits down by the aisle.

The doors close by themselves, leaving the robed man alone in the dark, empty church. The bells stops tolling and everything goes silent. The glow of somewhere around a hundred tiny flames reveal only shadows and outlines all reflecting a hint of dim orange candle light.

At the end of the room red curtains hang, covering up the back wall entirely.

They gently sway back and forth, ripples bouncing off of one another.

A few moments pass as the hooded figure sits in the back of the church. His head bowed before him. Hands clasped together before his face, engulfed by his baggy, drooping hood.  
The slow, steady sound of his breathing can faintly be heard throughout the empty room.

The thudding of feet against wood.  
Suddenly the sounds of chain grinding against a rusty metal surface emit from the back corners of the room.  
The curtains part, and slowly begin drifting away from one another.

A light squeezes through, distorted by the eye-shaped stained glass windows, positioned on the upper back wall. Beams of colored light cast downwards upon the pews and the floor beneath them.

The Reverend stands tall before the desolate place, high up on this platform. Standing behind an oversized decorative podium.

"Good morning!" he says, his loud voice echoing throughout the wide open space, bouncing off the walls and back to him. Repeating every word he utters.

"Looks like we have a full house tonight!"

The hooded figure, black robes illuminated in the new light, does not seem to react. Doesn't so much as turn his head to look in the Reverend's general direction.  
The Reverend's smile spreads across his face as he pulls a large book from inside of his podium, and lays the heavy thing before him.

A sudden knock on the door.  
Smile widens across Rev's face, stretching from ear to ear.  
Three more knocks.

The wide doors slowly open by themselves, spreading to reveal a little girl. She stands there in the light, her elongated form; a shadow on the floor before her. She looks up at the stained glass eye, with her own eyes full of wonder.

"What's this? A newcomer! Hello there, little one."

She doesn't say a word as her gaze moves from the enormous eye, to the Reverend.

"Step forth child. All are welcome."

As she walks passed the threshold, the doors follow her. They slam into place, and it startles the child.  
She composes herself, and looks over to the dark figure.  
She walks diagonally to the left, skipping her way down the aisle. She aims for the third pew from the front, but the Reverend stops her and asks her to step forward.  
She hesitantly complies.

Standing front and center, staring up at that eye just above behind him. The light shines down through the eye and onto her. As if it's fixated on her and her alone.

"Little girl; have you been saved?"

"Saved?"

"You want to be saved, don't you?"

"I guess so."

"Well, in order to be saved, you must first realize that you are evil."

The light that shines on her turns red as the color slowly clouds over the eye.

"Evil and worthless."

"I'm... sorry" she says

"Sorry isn't good enough.

A heavy breeze blows through the church, over a hundred tiny flames, dancing with the wind.

"The only way to be saved is to reject everything you are."

Flames flickering and blowing out.  
Candles falling over.

"You must wipe the slate clean and replace everything with God."

The dark figure in the back starts whispering something to himself.

"You no longer matter."

Sweat beads on the little girl's forehead as she gets dizzy and turns to go. She stumbles over, still in the spotlight, and cries out.

"You never did."

The dark figure gets up from the back pew and makes his way down the aisle, towards the little girl. His robes dragging on the floor around his feet.

"The devil will try to trick you into thinking you do, but you don't."

The little girl struggles to roll over onto her back tto see the large curtains have caught fire. Flames crawling their way up the wall, to the ceiling.

"The devil will try to trick you into asking questions."

Before she knows it, the dark man is upon her. His gnarled and mangled hand placed upon her shoulder as he kneels and leans forward to meet her.

"The devil will try to lure you into hell, so you can suffer with him."

She begins to rapidly age, her short burnet hair growing down passed her shoulders as her facial bone structure shifts. Curves developing and ripping through her clothes as her figure grows. Her hair growing at waist level, her fingernails extending to unfathomable lengths. She tries to scream but her voice is no longer hers. Breasts shaping and dropping. Her flesh sags and her hair is growing into split ends at her feet. She's but a wrinkled sack of brittle bones, staring up into the eye over the dark man's shoulder, glaring dark red down through them.

"But you're too smart for that, right?"

Closing her eyes, she is consumed by light as the Reverend's voice fades away into white noise.


End file.
